Editor, publisher charged with sedition in Bangladesh

New York, December 19, 2012--CPJ is deeply concerned by sedition
charges leveled against Mahmudur Rahman, the acting editor and majority owner of
the Bengali-language pro-opposition daily Amar
Desh and the paper's publisher, Alhaj Hasmat Ali. The two were charged after
publishing news stories based on leaked transcripts of conversations between a
lawyer and the lead judge of Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal.

The prosecutor of the tribunal, Saidur Rahman, filed a
complaint against Rahman last week after Amar
Desh, the second largest daily in the country, reported on Skype conversations between Judge Mohammed Nizamul
Huq and a human rights activist and lawyer based in Brussels. According to news
reports, the judge shared details of the case and asked for advice, which
some observers say cast doubt on the impartiality of the tribunal. Huq, who
initially disputed the authenticity of the leaked conversations, stepped down
from the tribunal last week.

The tribunal on December 13 ordered all media to stop
reporting on the leaked conversations and resulting fallout, according to local
media
reports.

"The credibility of the court is dependent on open and
unrestricted coverage of its activities," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program
coordinator. "Authorities only undermine the court's mission by leveling these
very serious charges of sedition against journalists who have raised critical
questions about the proceedings."

Rahman has confined himself to his office in the capital,
Dhaka, for the past eight days. "If the government wants to arrest me, they
will have to do so from my desk," Rahman told CPJ. Ali, the publisher of the
daily who also faces charges, remains at his home, according to Rahman.

The tribunal aims to investigate war crimes, crimes against
humanity, genocide, and crimes against peace committed during the 1971 war of
independence in which Bangladesh seceded from Pakistan. Several hundred
thousand civilians were killed, and thousands of women raped. As part of a peace
treaty, Pakistanis were granted immunity from prosecution in Bangladesh, but Bangladeshis
were not. Critics say the tribunal is being used to target political opponents
of the ruling Awami League.

Rahman--who served as an energy adviser in the previous Bangladesh
Nationalist Party-led government --was arrested
in June 2010, and spent 10 months in prison on charges
of harming the court's reputation, including defamation for publishing reports
on alleged corruption by the son of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He
says he was beaten while held.